


The Instrument’s Heart

by Kendrickhier



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Sentient instruments, musician au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:02:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26009209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kendrickhier/pseuds/Kendrickhier
Summary: In a universe where instruments have thoughts and feelings, love blooms between a cello and a piano. Alex and Astra, as their players, have little choice but to go along with it.
Relationships: Astra/Alex Danvers
Comments: 18
Kudos: 34
Collections: Kendrick's Fics: Supergirl





	The Instrument’s Heart

The sounds of the piano and cello sing through the room, leaving a beautiful harmony in their wake that whisks its audience away with its warmth. The notes bounce off the walls in a way that makes the concert feel like a small intimate gathering, as if getting to sneak a peek into the bond between these two instruments, despite the fact that it was anything but a private affair.

In a world where the instrument makes the musician, it was hard to believe these instruments were never intended to become performers. They didn’t have the history of skilled players playing them throughout the years, nor did they go through the temper tantrums of an ambitious instrument; they instead came from humble beginnings.

The piano, when first tested by the maker and his students, had been a social instrument that was perfectly suitable for any and all users. Thusly, it had ended up in a rehearsal room at a music academy — the one Astra had started teaching in, many decades after the piano first got there. 

Astra hadn’t been the best player to ever play it. Yet the piano preferred her skillful hands to any other. There was so much more emotion coming from the piano when she played it — it still let other people play it, but it refused to put in the effort it put in for Astra, and so she had naturally gravitated towards moving her lessons there.

The cello, on the other hand, had been a beginner’s instrument Alex had received on her 8th birthday. They had bonded throughout the struggles of learning how to play, and it tried to console her any time a piece got her down, encouraging to get her through it. It was because of the cello’s insistence Alex found her way to that very same academy.

They can’t help reminiscing as their instruments do, remembering their first time playing together.

Things had been going smoothly before then, Astra accompanying the students one by one with their respective instruments. It was pleasant enough to listen to, nothing special, but good practice nonetheless. Until it was Alex’s turn, the last in line. In hindsight, that had been a blessing in disguise.

Cautiously, Alex’s cello began the sounds of one of Beethoven’s sonatas, seeking out the guidance of the piano that had been and continued to be a stable mentor. Its sounds were confident, but gentle. The cello soon found its footing. It rose in confidence, matching the tone and taking it a step further, challenging the piano to keep up.

It didn’t disappoint.

The instruments kept challenging each other as the piece crescendoed, as they are doing right now, both instrument and player completely engrossed in the music and getting swept away by it. Alex had never heard her cello play like this before. When the movement drew to a close, and the sounds faded to silence, the silence had lingered for a few more moments as both students and players processed what had transpired. Unrefined as it had been, they’d heard two instruments find a love in each other.

Alex hadn’t even liked Astra at that time. The woman, as a person, had been a pain in her ass.

It mattered not however, for the cello and piano had been changed thoroughly. The piano now refused to play for anyone who wasn’t Astra, purposefully sounding horribly out of tune, or adding unnecessary embellishments as if to indicate its boredom. Even if Astra was the one playing, any time it played without Alex’s cello it sounded mournful. As a result, the academy had had no choice but to move the piano to the room Astra was supposed to teach in to begin with. The rehearsal room got a new piano in its stead.

The cello wasn’t much better off. While it had no other players to let down, it let its grief be known to Alex and anyone else around them, whether they be listening or playing together. Even the most joyful pieces managed to sound like something to be played at a funeral.

Begrudged, Alex had felt she’d have to give into her cello’s desire. While in theory she could continue to play sad songs for the rest of her career, it hadn’t felt right to her to let her instrument down after all it had helped her through.

So for the sake of the music they played together with increasing frequency. With practice the quality of their sound only refined, the harmonies sounding more and more beautiful as the instruments got better acquainted, the emotions reaching deeper into both the hearts of themselves and the listener. The quality improved to a performance worthy level. Passersby paused outside the room any time they played, naturally drawing in an audience even in their cramped halls.

The piano was reassigned as a concert piano, and gained its own transport team for performances.

But the instruments weren’t the only ones to grow closer during this time. In hindsight, it was inevitable Alex and Astra would fall for each other too. The music whisked them away to a place where there was nothing but them and their sound, where feelings ran high and low depending on the piece of music, fully engrossing them in it. Alex hadn’t realized those feelings had been affecting her until one particularly passionate session, when the music grew more intense, she ended up kissing Astra — and Astra, just as caught up, responded in kind.

They could have sworn their instruments made a joyful sound all on their own.

And now here they are, performing together in the biggest concert hall the country has to offer, filled to the brim. All these people are here to listen to them and their expression of love for each other, something none of them are particularly shy about sharing. The instruments least of all.

Alex glances at her wife, and can’t help but smile at seeing and hearing her play — a look that is returned, and the warmth and softness in it makes her heart skip a beat, even after all these years, accompanied by her cello accenting the note she was playing.

It somehow sounds better that way.


End file.
